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Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Display Review: Questionable value OLED tech - XDA Developers
Nov 20, 2021 4 mins, 16 secs

The Pixel 6 Pro comes equipped with a sharp 6.71-inch OLED, and it has the best display hardware that Google has put on a phone till date.

For the first time since the Pixel 2, Google is using an inferior rigid OLED display stack in their main phone lineup to cut costs.

For the first time since the Pixel 2, Google is using an inferior rigid OLED display stack.

Contrast, grayscale, and color accuracy are tested throughout the display’s brightness range.

A color error ΔETP less than 3.0 is an acceptable level of accuracy for a reference display (suggested from ITU-R BT.2124 Annex 4.2), and a ΔETP value greater than 8.0 can be noticeable at a glance, which I’ve concluded empirically.

The profile targets the full sRGB color space (gamut, white point, and tone response) while Android’s color management system handles wide-gamut P3 content in apps that support it.

Internally, Google is now also targeting Display P3 as the phone’s default composition data space, which is a small step in maturing their color management system.

For those that are not satisfied with the white balance of their Pixel, Google, unfortunately, does not provide any option to tune that aspect of the display (outside of Night Light).

After five minutes, the phone display will ramp down to about 470 nits, which is both phones’ maximum manual brightness when auto-brightness is disabled.

Apart from peak brightness, display tone mapping also plays a big role in improving a screen’s legibility under sunlight.

When set to their dimmest brightness setting, the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro can get down to about 1.8–1.9 nits, which is typical of most, but not all OLED phones (namely OnePlus).

Before the Pixel 6, Google only reserved 255 distinct brightness values to control the display brightness.

Now with the Pixel 6, Google increased the internal number of brightness values up to 2043 between 2 nits and 500 nits.

The jitteriness is exacerbated by the speed and the behavior of the Pixel’s auto-brightness transitions, which steps linearly through display luminance at a constant pace that reaches max brightness from minimum brightness in one second—or about 500 nits per second.

Quickly touching on display power: When focusing on fullscreen display nits per watt, the Pixel 6 Pro consumes substantially more power than the Pixel 6 at high brightness.

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Natural, 1.8 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Natural, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Natural, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Natural, 400 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Natural, 750 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Adaptive, 1.8 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Adaptive, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Adaptive, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Adaptive, 400 nits).

Pixel 6 Tone Response (Adaptive, 750 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Natural, 2 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Natural, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Natural, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Natural, 400 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Natural, 800 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Adaptive, 2 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Adaptive, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Adaptive, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Adaptive, 400 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro Tone Response (Adaptive, 800 nits).

For the Natural and Boosted profiles, the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro now conform to the piecewise sRGB tone response curve rather than gamma 2.2.

In regards to accuracy, both phones do a good job tracking the sRGB tone curve in their Natural and Boosted mode.

The formula for good color accuracy is quite simple: accurate tone mapping plus an accurate white point.

Pixel 6 sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 2 nits).

Pixel 6 sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 400 nits).

Pixel 6 sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 750 nits).

Pixel 6 P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 2 nits)!

Pixel 6 P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 20 nits).

Pixel 6 P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 100 nits).

Pixel 6 P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 400 nits)?

Pixel 6 P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 750 nits).

Pixel 6 Pro sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 2 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 20 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 100 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 400 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro sRGB Color Accuracy (Natural, 800 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 2 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 20 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 100 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 400 nits)

Pixel 6 Pro P3 Color Accuracy (Natural, 800 nits)

These values are sufficient enough for a reference display, though it’s important to note that these color measurements were taken at 75% tone intensity; the poor color precision on the cheaper Pixel 6 display means that it’s expected to perform worse at lower tone intensities, while the Pro display remains accurate independent of tone intensity

Besides that, there is some mild skewing with more-complex color mixtures, such as with purple and orange, due to the different tone response curve that Google is using

Excellent tone control, precision, and color accuracy carries over to HDR10 on the Pixel 6 Pro

The ST.2084 standard HDR tone response curve is faithfully reproduced along with incredibly consistent color temperature all throughout its grayscale

The Pixel 6 Pro is able to get up to 800 nits fullscreen brightness, but a lack of metadata-aware tone mapping brings the usable in-content peak down to about 650 nits

For its highest-end handset, Google delivers some of the best color reproduction and image consistency that you can find on any consumer display

XDA » Featured » Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro Display Review: Questionable value OLED tech

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